Twentieth+Welsh+7





The 20th Amendment
This amendment is also called the "Lame Duck Amendment."

What does the amendment do and how does it affect the world today?
A. The Twentieth Amendment controls the length of the terms of goverment officials. The terms of the President and the Vice President end at noon on the 20th of January. The terms of Represenatives and Senators end at noon on the 3rd day of January. The Amendment states that if the President dies, the Vice President will take his/her place. It also says that congress should assemble at least once every year on January 3rd at noon. This date will only be different if congress appoints a different date. The amendment affects the world today because if the President and or Vice president were to die this states that the House of Represenatives can appoint a new president or follow up with the Vice President which is the way they do it.

When was it proposed and when was it ratified?
A. It was proposed on March 2, 1932 and it was ratified on January 23, 1933. This amendment was ratified by 36 of the 48 current states ( Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states). States started ratifying the amendment on March 4, 1932 but it was completely ratified on January 23, 1933. This shows that it took approximately a year for this amendment to be ratified.

States that ratified this amendment are:
The order these states are listed is the order that they ratified the amendment.
 * Virginia
 * New York
 * Mississippi
 * Arkansas
 * Kentucky
 * New Jersey
 * South Carolina
 * Rhode Island
 * Illinois
 * Louisiana
 * West Virginia
 * Pennsylvania
 * Indiana
 * Texas
 * Alabama
 * California
 * North Carolina
 * North Dakota
 * Minnesota
 * Arizona
 * Montana
 * Nebraska
 * Oklahoma
 * Kansas
 * Oregon
 * Delaware
 * Washington[[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Map_of_USA_with_state_names.svg/800px-Map_of_USA_with_state_names.svg.png width="450" height="242" align="right" caption="The 50 states(including Alaska and Hawaii)."]]
 * Wyoming
 * Iowa
 * South Dakota
 * Tennessee
 * Idaho
 * New Mexico
 * Georgia
 * Missouri
 * Ohio
 * Utah

Who proposed the amendment?
A. The person who proposed this amendent was a senator named George W. Norris. He was a Senator for Nebraska.



Who would be next in line if the president died and the Vice- President?
A. If the President of the United States was to die, the Vice- President would take over.

Here is the order of people in power after the President and Vice- President:
Click on the names to learn more about that person. [|President of the Senate] || [|Dick Cheney] ||
 * ~ 1 || [|Vice President]
 * ~ 2 || [|Speaker of the House of Representatives] || [|Nancy Pelosi] ||
 * ~ 3 || [|President Pro Tempore of the Senate] || [|Robert Byrd] ||
 * ~ 4 || [|Secretary of State] || [|Condoleezza Rice] ||
 * ~ 5 || [|Secretary of the Treasury] || [|Henry Paulson] ||
 * ~ 6 || [|Secretary of Defense] || [|Robert Gates] ||
 * ~ 7 || [|Attorney General] || [|Michael Mukasey] ||
 * ~ 8 || [|Secretary of the Interior] || [|Dirk Kempthorne] ||
 * ~ — || //[|Secretary of Agriculture]// || //[|Charles Conner]// //(acting)//[|‡] ||
 * ~ — || //[|Secretary of Commerce]// || //[|Carlos Gutierrez]// //(non-natural)//[|†] ||
 * ~ — || //[|Secretary of Labor]// || //[|Elaine Chao]// //(non-natural)//[|†] ||
 * ~ 9 || [|Secretary of Health and Human Services] || [|Michael Leavitt] ||
 * ~ 10 || [|Secretary of Housing and Urban Development] || [|Alphonso Jackson] ||
 * ~ 11 || [|Secretary of Transportation] || [|Mary Peters] ||
 * ~ 12 || [|Secretary of Energy] || [|Samuel Bodman] ||
 * ~ 13 || [|Secretary of Education] || [|Margaret Spellings] ||
 * ~ 14 || [|Secretary of Veterans Affairs] || [|James Peake] ||
 * ~ 15 || [|Secretary of Homeland Security] || [|Michael Chertoff] [|††] ||

The list is much longer these are just the first 15 people.

Why do we still have the amendment?
A. We still use the amendment today because if something happened to the President, we will still have someone to keep order in the country. This also decides when congress should meet and when each term for a government official ends.

Why is the amendment called the "Lame Duck" amendment?
A. Prior to this amendment elections took place in November but the goverment officials didn't take office until March 4. This left officials in office for 4 months knowing they did have their job anymore. With that they could show up when they want and not do anything and not get in trouble because they were losing their jobs anyway. So, people who know they are going to lose their job or be fired and called "Lame Ducks." This amendment stopped the long period between the changes of people in office so this is how it got the nickname the "Lame Duck" amendment because it basically stopped "Lame Ducks."

What were some situations where the Vice President took over power?

 * William Henry Harrison died on April 4th 1841 because of pneumonia. John Tyler took over after his death.
 * Abraham Lincoln was assinated on April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. After the assasination, Vice President Andrew Johnson took over Presidency.
 * James A. Garfield was the second President to be assasinated. He was in office for 6 months and 15 days until he was shot on July 2, 1881. Chester Alan Arthur was the Vice President who took over power as President.
 * William McKinley was another President who was assasinated. He was shot on September 5, 1901 and Theodore Roosevelt was the Vice President who took over Mckinley's place.
 * John F Kennedy was assasinated on November 22, 1963. Lyndon Baines Johnson took over Presidency after the assasination.

John's current event and article: [|John's article] Current event:
My article has to do with the part of the 20th amendment that speaks about if the president were to be assaassinated. It also talks about assassinations we've had in the United States. This article states that there were 4 successful Presidential assassinations. It also mentions assassinations of other historical figures such as Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. This article also mentions that Sara Jane Moore attempted to kill President Gerald Ford but it was unsuccessful. Next it states that there was about 75 years ago an attempt to kill President Franklin Roosevelt. Instead he was pushed around in the crowd and instead it hit Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak. The bullet only fatally injured Cermak. If this bullet struck Roosevelt this would have left the U.S. without leadership going into the war. Where Cermak was shot there is marker saying the quote from Cermak speaking to the President "I'm glad it was me instead of you." This article, __Assassin's Bullets Alter History__,was written on January 4, 2008 by Lionel Van Deerlin. My oppinion on this article is that assassination is a horrible thing and that many have attempted or succeeded in killing the President. I think people that do this are crazy because the people they kill are supposed to be there heroes and role models. I think the fact people kill these people is a bad thing. One final thing is if I become famous I hope someone doesn't shoot at me for no reason.

Stephanie's Current Event:
__Iowa Caucuses__ January 2, 2008 The Iowa Caucuses talks about how the Candidates running for President are trying to do everything they could to win the tight race at the polls. Among the Democrats, Obama is fighting with Sen. Hilary Clinton and trying to fire up the crowd to win. Obama drew a big crowd during his speeches in Iowa. On the Republican side, their are two former governors. Hukabee of Arkansas and Mitt Romney of Massachusets are in a tough competition against each other. Gov. Mike Huckabee pulled out a bass guitar and played "Blue Suede Shoes" to the audience. Huckabee would make criticizim ads of Romney and show it to a room full of reporters and cameramen. But Romney also criticized Huckabee in ads and something he had said in an interview. All the Candidates are trying their best to win this election. This relates to the Twentieth Amendment because one of there Candidates will have to sware in as President on January 20th next year. This is part of the inaugaration part of the Amendment. My opinion for this ariticle is that I think its mean and babyish how the two Republicans are criticizing or making fun of each other. I think they could have found some other way to collect votes instead of this. //Article: The Journal News Candidates roll out upbeat ads, make last-minute appeals

George Bush

Lilly"s Current Event:// A New Low in Approval Starts Bush's Final Year George Bush rating has fallen to just 28 percent, a new low, while more than twice as many (64 percent) disapprove of the way he's handling his job. Two-thirds of Americans remain opposed to the president's plan for sending more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq. In 2 years George Bush's term is over. To read more here is a website: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/22/opinion/polls/main2384943.shtml#top